Pitti Uomo 83 - Streetwear&Denim edition _ daily roundup

Shoes: As usual, great stuff coming out of Japan. A small artisanal maker, Eichi Katsukawa (after working for Paul Harnden), expands his line, and Quilp by Masao Morishita, collaborates with Tricker’s to produce shoes that are one part English tradition and one part Harajuku pop. Yuketen, another forum favorite, goes back to the drawing board with new, more labor intensive, construction on its shoes, ensuring that not only will they look great, but they’ll be ready to pass onto your grandchildren when you can no longer put them on.

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Rach,

I don't mean to be blunt, but what exactly does this mean? Have they switched makers or construction techniques, or did they simply tell you that they've enhanced their construction methods? I mean, for the price Visvim are able to command, they could feasibly make a handwelted shoe if they wanted to.

Also, a small request, but would you be able to check out if there are any small obscure Italian shoemakers that you could feature? Some of them that I've seen have some interesting rustic features. Even Lattanzi was just a (very very good) shoemaker before the brilliant marketing and celebrity clients, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are a bunch of them out there struggling for a bit of recognition.

The shoes just aren't my style however I'll keep an open mind. I'm more interested in hearing about you getting kicked out of the Santa Maria Novella flagship by an angry Swiss sales associate.

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Prof Fab doesn't wait in line! (haha) He walks over and spritzes himself. After nearly 400 bottles of sniffery, he doesn't like to listen to an annoying sales pitch the associate picked up in the 20 minutes sales training seminar.

Rach,
I don't mean to be blunt, but what exactly does this mean? Have they switched makers or construction techniques, or did they simply tell you that they've enhanced their construction methods? I mean, for the price Visvim are able to command, they could feasibly make a handwelted shoe if they wanted to.

Also, a small request, but would you be able to check out if there are any small obscure Italian shoemakers that you could feature? Some of them that I've seen have some interesting rustic features. Even Lattanzi was just a (very very good) shoemaker before the brilliant marketing and celebrity clients, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are a bunch of them out there struggling for a bit of recognition.

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Good question. Short answer is that I'm not an expert in shoe construction, details, and technical stuff. SO, I'm going by what he told me and showed me. Basically, he went in and reworked the entire construction on the inside (meaning not just for aesthetics). He was quite proud of it, saying it was both labor intensive, expensive, and not something most shoemakers did. JCusey or some of the old-school shoe experts here probably could have spoken much better to exactly what it was, but my purpose was mainly to get the "DNA" of the collections and such and so I was more interested the conceptual side. In any case, they haven't switched makers as much as the techniques used to construct the shoes.

Thanks for the question and keep it up! This is a learning/growing process, so knowing more specifically what you guys are interested in learning will help me (or whomever will cover shows in the future) target the interviews. I tried to ride a line between "concept" and "product," meaning enough technical details so you knew what was going on, but also with context on the fashion-angle of the brands/collections.

As for other shoemakers, another fellow in MC covered the "classic" menswear stuff (re: lattanzi). I covered mostly SW&D-type stuff and Japanese designers, because it was easy for me to get good interviews with them since I speak Japanese and they were often freaked out trying to speak English or Italian. The shows are over now and I'm back home with a semester at uni starting up, but writing up from all the materials gathered from the week. So, I will definitely have a lot of shoemakers, bagmakers, etc. (even some fragrances!) gathered from the week... probably 20-25 different ones.

Pitti 83 wasn’t just about clothes or shoes, but also a wide range of premium accessories ranging from shaving goods to cookies to socks. Two of my favorite parfumeries featured were Lorenzo Villoresi and Torre of Tuscany.

The context: The premium fragrance market, like the premium denim market of a decade ago, is supersaturated almost the point of incomprehensibility. A dedicated fragrance fan could sniff a new scent from a brand claiming “all natural” and exclusive scents every hour for an entire year and still not sample all of them. As such, wading through to find a distinctive, quality, accessible scent in the $100-150 range is harder than one might imagine. These two, of the many at Pitti, stood out.

What I like: Both are traditional Italian perfumeries, featuring a wide range of unique scents that are distinctive and high quality. For me, an essential element of a premium fragrance is that it have backbone and distinction; one doesn’t want to smell like everyone else in the room. At the same time, one doesn’t want to smell different simply for the purpose of smelling different; the parfumeur must ride a delicate balance to keep a scent unique, while in a familiar range of fragrance families. Newer customers to the world of fragrance might enjoy Villoresi’s newest line of scents inspired by the sea, Mare Nostrum and Aura Maris, or Torre’s Profumi del forte line of scents inspired by the Forte dei Marmi, a Tuscan landmark noted for its discrete, clean architectural style. More seasoned fans should look to Villoresi’s classic Piper Nigrum, a spicy scent featuring a blend of pepper and menthol, or Torre’s Berkana, a spicy citrus with a very woody vetiver note.

What I don’t: Villoresi is a classic house with a very long history. I’m a personal fan of the brand and have been for a long time, so there is little that I don’t like about it. However, from a commercial point of view, the scents all have a very similar DNA tied to Mr. Villoresi himself. As such, if you tend not to like that DNA, you will have a difficult time warming up to any new scent that comes out. With Torre, quite the opposite occurs; they have so many offerings coming out each year that it is difficult to figure out where, what, and how they all fit together. While Villoresi may be unnecessarily narrow in its approach, Torre sometimes feels too broad, a veritable “one stop shop” of parfumerie.

How they compare: Pricing is relatively comparable, as are the quality of the ingredients. Torre’s packaging is quite distinctive, with true marble tops and thick crystal or cut glass bottles. Villoresi concentrates almost purely on the juice inside, though the bottling and packaging are high quality. Villoresi himself is a parfumeur, and the brand and its scents revolve around his personal ideas and aesthetics. Torre, on the other hand, is a fragrance company who commissions parfumeurs around the world for its scents. So, while they both are inspired by various locations around Italy, they are quite unique and different in how they approach the creation of a scent.

Overall assessment: Readers of the Scent threads know that I’m a purist when it comes to fragrance; it is less a market in my book than a personal and aesthetic choice. Given that, my personal tastes run closely to Villoresi. However, from an overall commercial point of view for a casual customer looking for an excellent scent, Torre does a great job with beautiful packaging. Sample the “del forte” line for a wide range of classic styles; try Villoresi’s classic line for standards that epitomize the genre (for example, Villoresi’s classic Sandalo or Incensi).

I have a bottle of LV - Acqua di Colonia and I think it is both superior to my Chanel - Pour Moniseur and Acqua di Parma - Colonia.
Imo LV is highly underrated, you should definitely check out his products.